SALE PROHIBITED.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 566, 2 December 1915, Page 9

SALE PROHIBITED.

NAVAL PUBLICATIONS BANNED. NEW REGULATION ISSUED BY DEFENCE AUTHORITIES. [TBfB Sun Special.] WELLINGTON, December 2. j The sale within New Zdfeland of dertain publications dealing with the world's navies is prohibited by a regulation gazetted to-day under the War Regulations Act, 1914 The Minister, of Defence has power under that Act to prohibit the sale of any books or other publications "which he deems injurious to the public interest in respect of the present war." The volumes which have been placed flrider the ban are: "Fleets of the world" (published by Evelyn Nash); "The Naval PbcketBook" (published by Tliacker and Company), and "Fighting Ships," "The World's Warships," "Warships at a Glance," and "The Naval " Recognition Book" (four volumes, edited by Mr F. T. Jane and published by Sampson, Low, Marston, and Co.). All the books are published in London. During the last week or two some volumes that Come under the new regulation have been sold locally, and the Defence authorities have been taking steps to trace them, apparently*with the object of removing from them certain pages containing information regarding some 6f the fighting ships engaged in the present war. The regulation is understood to have originated with the Imperial Government, but the curious thing about it is that the volumes ■Were published in London with the consent of the Admiralty. They contain none of the detailed information regarding British ships that used to be issued broadcast by all the naval publications prior to the outbreak of the war, and it is difficult for a layman to see what harm their general circulation could do. Not one of the volumes mentioned in the schedule to the regulation contains any information that is not already on record in every Admiralty office in the world—to say nothing of most of the newspaper offices and libraries of private people who happen to take an interest in naval matters. An edition of "The Naval PocketBook," published only a month or two before the outbreak of the war, contains, for example, details of the five British battleships of the Queen Elizabeth class, all laid down in 1912-13,' and* all now in commission, according to a cablegram published the other day. It describes, also, a later group of battleships, the five Royal Sovereigns, laid down in 191314, and mentions the 1914-15 ships. That volume was distributed all over the world, and cannot have failed to reach the hands of the Empire's present enemies, who probably did not need the information it contained. But New Zealartders, at any rate, are not to have these pari ticulars.